Mugged - by a marina

[krissteyn]

I can count on 1 hand (yes I am still lucky) how many times I have dis-agreed with the marina's bill and left after paying and thinking I was ripped off.
Was wondering if the peculiar rule for the Thesalonika Aretsou Marina is abnormal or if I will find it again.
They charge midnight to midnight , so a late arrival and early next day departure is billed as 2 days.
I was aware of this and planned to leave before midnight (we were gone from the dock by 22h30) but on the day in question, they decided to close the office at 4pm so when we tried to check out , there was no-one. The port police assisted me in phoning the woman who appeared to be in charge and she just said we must pay.
I was very carefull the next morning to be firm and polite - but despite all my pleas, they threatened me with police action if I did not pay. So I paid....

Is this midnight rule prevalent ? The marina kept telling me it was but its the first time I have encountered it.

[redbopeep]

I only have USA marina experience. Some have a "checkout" time in late morning. I've never heard midnight-to-midnight, no. I do know a couple public marinas that will let you tie up and stay all day while you run errands but if you stay "overnight" (assume midnight) they charge you. Similar to your story, there's a marina (Channel Islands Marina or something near Ventura in SoCal) that a friend, who came into the marina, was at the pumpout or visitor's dock trying to figure out where to go. He was chatted up by the security guy...talk, talk, talk, talk 30 minutes of talking. My friend thought it was nuts until after midnight (they showed up at 11:30 pm). Security didn't explain it, but at midnight he said--lets go up and get you checked in and THEN when they were going to the office, he says "oh, you'd have had to pay for an extra day if you came in before midnight." so he saved them the $$$.

It really doesn't matter if only that one marina has the rule, they're setting their own pricing and rules and can do so. If you left before midnight and the port police saw you leave (um, gotta gps track showing time-stamp?) then it seems you're in the clear unless the rule is that you must checkout with the office during office hours.

Before we go into a marina, we assure that our checkout will be "ok" even if unsupervised. For example, we recently departed a marina after closing hours on a Monday evening but the marina office is closed until Thursday morning. We verified that all would be fine before departure. They told us where to put the keys for safe keeping and off we went.

What you describe is one of those crazy situations which lead us to simply "avoid" a marina with any sort of weird policy. It'll get you always. Sad to say, easy for us to complain, but even easier to just avoid such marinas.

Fair winds,

[capta]

I thought Turkey was expensive, at one US dollar for every hundred miles of coastal cruising (1978), until I arrived in Greece. There it became quite evident that they knew how to get every single dollar you had out of you. Thinking about it for a while, while sipping an Ouzo at a cay side bar, it occurred to me that Greece has had cruising yachts since Cleopatra visited there some years back. No wonder they have it down to a fine science!

[jupiow]

in mahon menorca ...its euros 150 a night for a 15 meter boat...no anchoring in the port allowed

[haiqu]

In Praia do Jacaré it's 10 Euro a day, or 20 Euro a week for use of facilities if you remain anchored off the marina. Guess where I'm heading ...

[brianastbury@msn.com]

We have just returned from a week cruising in the Dodecanese, visiting Kos, Leros and Patmos. Patmos was free and moorings in Xerocambos, Leros were also free apart from a request from the Taverna owner who laid the moorings to eat in his wonderful restaurant! Lakki Marina charged 21€ for an overnight stay and if you wanted water and or power they were only 5€ each. A bargain in a country where the people are so friendly.